Thursday, February 18, 2010

An Industrial Visit to Endurance Technologies, Pune


As a part of an industrial visit we the students of Wisdom Institute of Management Studies were taken to Endurance Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Pune. We got the opportunity to meet the HR managers and the production head of Endurance. We were greeted by Mr. Amre who led us to the conference room where he gave us a brief introduction on Endurance. He showed us an animated clip of 10 minutes in which all the missions, goals and working of Endurance was shown.

The mission of Endurance Technologies is to achieve and maintain leadership with a focus on Technology, Product Reliability and Safety in an environment of Honesty, Transparency and Fairness and contribute towards betterment of society. And goals are to

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif Achieve a sustained Zero Customer Complaint for Proprietary Group (Suspension, Transmission and Braking) and below 500 Customer Complaint for Casting Group (High Pressure, Low Pressure, Gravity Die Casting and Aluminium Alloy Wheels) latest from March 2007 onwards. http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif Endurance to achieve Profitable Sales of USD 1 Billion globally by the Year 2009-10.

A brief history and introduction to Endurance was also given as follows:

ENDURANCE was established in 1985 as Anurang Engineering Co. Pvt. Ltd. to manufacture Aluminium Die Casting products at Aurangabad, Maharashtra (India). The Endurance Group is a global force in Aluminium Casting (including Alloy Wheel), Suspension, Transmission and Braking products with an annual sale of €251 Million (RS. 1634 Crores) from domestic operations and approx. €104 Million (RS. 674 Crores) from overseas operations for the year 2008-2009. Endurance Group has 19 Plants across India, Italy & Germany.

The company’s main business area and products are:

Casting

  • High Pressure Die Castings
  • Low Pressure Die Castings
  • Gravity Die Castings
  • Alloy Wheels


Suspension

  • 2/3 Wheeler Shock Absorbers
  • Motorcycle Front Forks
  • Hydraulic & Gas charged Dampers, MacPherson Struts, Gas Springs for cars, LCVs, HCVs, etc.


Transmission

  • 2/3 Wheeler Clutches
  • Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT)
  • Friction Plates


Braking

  • Hydraulic Disc Brakes
  • Tandem Master Cylinders
  • Hydraulic Drum Brakes
  • Brake Shoes
  • Caliper Components


After the video clipping Mr. Amre explained the policies followed at Endurance.

Their Quality policy states, “Our Policy is to Design and Manufacture Automobile Products of Excellent, Consistent and Reliable Quality to meet Customer Satisfaction. This will be achieved through continuous Improvement in Technology, Systems, Methods and Resource Management.”

Whereas the TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance) policy states, “We at Endurance are committed to practice TPM to improve product reliability and the working culture, to eliminate losses of all types in a continual manner, to maximize the operational efficiency and accomplish total internal and external customer satisfaction, safe and hygienic working environment through total employee involvement.”

While briefing Mr. Amre explained that there are 800 employees working currently in the plant and they work for 24 hrs in three shifts. Thursday is a weekly off for everyone. He said that at a time a worker can work on three machines to increase productivity and save time.

Mrs. Nagalaxmi Iyer who also works in the HR department explained how the HR department works. She gave a brief description on the focus areas of Endurance which are:

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif TPM
– Focus on PQCDSM (Productivity, Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety, Morale),

with full focus on "QUALITY".

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif Customer Focus
– Organic and inorganic Growth.

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif Technology:
– Strong In-house R & D, and Strong Foreign Collaborations.

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif Strong Vendor Partnership
– Selection of Best Vendors in terms of 'QCD' with Right Attitude to support Endurance in this competitive environment.

http://www.endurancesystems.com/images/bullets.gif People
– Organizational and individual success at Endurance will depend on the

caliber and capability of its' People, and its' ability to retain them.

She said that Endurance casting division follows TPM which is a Japanese policy. TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is based on 7 pillars and it is a practical methodology to achieve,

  • Zero Breakdowns
  • Zero losses
  • Zero Accidents
  • Zero Defects
  • Zero Customer complaints

The pillars of TPM are:

1. Autonomous maintenance i.e. Jishu Hozen which means I operate, I maintain, I do, I check.

2. Kobetsu Kaizen which means continual Improvement.

3. Planned Maintenance which means planning of the operation process in advance and commencing of new machines and product development.

4. Quality Maintenance which means achieving zero defects to sustain zero breakdowns, to reduce maintenance spare costs.

5. Education & Training which means upgrading operational skills.

6. Office TPM which means to reduce duplication of work and to take decision on right time.

7. Safety, Health & Environment which means to achieve zero accidents to control pollution and save environment.

After the briefing was completed Mr. Yogesh who is an engineer in the production department toke us for a tour of the various departments of the company. At the entrance of the workshop in glass displays were the awards won by Endurance and few samples of the products made at the workshop. A map of the company layout was also on display which showed how different machines are placed, and where each department lies.

We began with the High pressure die casting department were 71 High Pressure Die Casting Machines (250 to 1400T) (BUHLER, ITAL PRESS, UBE, TOSHIBA, YOTA, HMT, IDRA ZITAI) are used. These machines can melt up to 30000 M. Tonnes of Aluminium in a year.

The second department included machining, painting and assembling altogether. The casting first goes through the paint shop where it is painted then to the machine shop were all the rough edges are smoothen for better fitting and lastly assembled. After assembling the castings are packed and are ready to be dispatched.

The tool room consists of machines like, Deckel Maho - CNC Milling, MAKINO – HMC, Electronica – Ultracut F2, Deckel Maho- VMC Machine.

We were shown samples of each product which was at that time in the machine shop. As the major vendor of Endurance is Bajaj we could see that most of the castings were prepared for Bajaj.

The dispatch department keeps track of the number of products dispatched and maintains a record for same.

Conclusion

The visit was a great experience, as students of management we were able to see the practical implementation of the theories of management. Endurance is a company which follows TPM policies and implements Kaizen which is a new technique introduced to provide a competitive edge under severe competition so that the product is retained in the market and achieves the top most position. TPM also consists of 5 S (Sort, Systematize, Sweep, Standardize, Self – Discipline) which is utilized for sorting out the problems, do systematic planning, maintaining cleanliness in the premises and maintaining discipline among employees. The cleanliness can be seen in the company very clearly and their contribution to the environment as they use the waste water for plantation in the company premises. The friendly and co-operative nature of the employees was worth praising. We were provided with each detail and all our queries were handled with patience. We are thankful to the Endurance group for having us at their plant and providing us with such wonderful knowledge.

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